In its first full quarter, The Clark campaign will raise more than 12 million dollars--around $16 after public matching funds of around $3.7 million. This is an unprecedented amount for such a "green" campaign. The Dean campaign, which has been in existence for over a year, is projected to raise around $16 in the fourth quarter--around two million more than its third quarter.
As we all know, fundraising is a great way to track momentum. The recent insider obsession with individual contributions highlights the campaigns with widespread support from "the people"--those who can only donate the price of a concert or DVD. Clark now has more money and individual contributions than any other candidate than Dean--and it took his campaign less than two months to do this. It is clear now that if Clark wins the nomination, he too can argue that he is "of the people, by the people, for the people"--and he even has the historic Draft Clark movement to prove it. Thanks again to Kos for helping Clark enter the race.
Bill Press has called Clark's fourth quarter projections "awesome." I agree--especially when you compare his projected totals to the "established" Democrats like Lieberman, Gephardt and Kerry (who had to mortgage his house to help with his struggling campaign).
The blogosphere seems to be miles ahead of the public, but it seems to me from popping my head around DU, DKos, and other Internet forums that this is rapidly becoming a Clark/Dean race. These numbers reflect that, and reinforce Clark's position as the competitor to Dean--the primary's current frontrunner. One of the biggest criticisms leveled at the Clark campaign is that it wasn't raising money or gaining enough supporters--this quarter will prove that assumption dead wrong.
Just sayin'.